Tyler veteran's remains found in Hawaii

Bill Arthington, a career Army man, served in Vietnam with his older brother.

"He knew he was going into the Air Force and I decided I was going to join the Army," Bill said. "And I went to Vietnam before he got there."

He followed his brothers footsteps, but his brother, Lt. Marvin Arthington, didn't follow him back.

"It was three days after I got home that we found out about it," Bill said.

Marvin was an Air Force pilot. The cargo plane he was flying crashed into the side of a mountain during bad weather on Nov. 27, 1970. The 24-year-old solider left behind a wife and 18-month-old daughter in Tyler, Texas.

The little girl in that picture is Andrea Maris.

"You can see his Aggie ring that he's got on," said Andrea Maris, Marvin's daughter. "He just is "Top Gun" looking, a handsome man. I just love that picture."

Lt. Marvin Arthington
(Photo: Courtesy)

Maris knows her father through stories and pictures but there has always been a mystery because his remains were never identified. In April, the family got the news they were waiting for. The Air Force confirmed that Marvin's DNA was found not in Vietnam but Hawaii. The military says they were brought to the island by a refugee and had been there since 1985.

"As an adult, I can really truly appreciate everything that is going to happen and there's 100 percent closure that we know it's him, that it was him then and now," Maris said.

So on a rainy October morning they watched as the remains were loaded on an American Airlines flight bound for Washington D.C. For the family, it's the closure they've been waiting for.

"He's finally coming home after 47 years," Bill said.

From there, family and friend will go to a burial service at Arlington National Cemetery and give a hero's welcome to a solider that's finally headed home.